Stronger Together chapter 244

Two of them. Two outsiders glaring at me hatefully. Well, I mean  really still one doing that, since Sharkface had no eyes, but still I  was positive he wasn't going to be signing us up for a couples massage  anytime in the near future. Regardless they both seemed pretty pissed,  which I got because I wasn't exactly in a good mood either. I sneered at  the freakish abomination that was he who walks behind. "You think you  can kill me scavenger? Your little buddy there is supposed to be the  vanguard of your whole crew and I stomped him like a pancake. What makes  you think some sneaky weakling is going to be able to take me out?"

In  reality I wasn't actually enthused about solo-ing two Walkers at the  same time, but aside from wanting to put this asshat off balance I also  wanted to make him suffer for making my mentors life a living hell.  Apparently despite the whole sneaky equals coward thing being pretty old  fashioned as insults go, it was also pretty universally effective. He  Who Walks Behind seemed completely at ease, still maliciously grinning,  but my angelic instincts were screaming at me that it was getting real  sick of my shit. It's voice when it spoke was different than Sharkface,  sort of cloyingly, sickeningly sweet in a poisonous way, like drinking  anti-freeze. "Oh? You would battle us both, whelp?"

I  was in tenth form right now, having downshifted because sitting here  talking was annoyingly low power draw even pumping my armor and aspects  at full blast in preparation. It was frustrating because I could almost  taste the fact that something interesting would happen when I got to the  thirteenth form if I could hold it for a few minutes, but even the  twelfth was pushing it as I was now. I was still rocking enough power to  prevent them from ambushing me so I wasn't too worried since I could  shift back up in an instant. That said I really didn't love staying like  this for longer than I had to. Knowing I could goad him I shrugged.  "Well one of you wasn't much of a challenge so sure, maybe it'll be more  fun this way."

I  tensed a bit as Sharkface stepped forward, drawing my attention. It  would have been on overdose of pure undiluted stupid to not expect He  Who Walks Behind to jump me from the back again if at all possible.  Sharkface postured a bit as he stepped up. "You seem to have  misconstrued the events that have taken place, child. You managed to  overwhelm me through luck and brute force, but now that I know what you  can d-" He was cut off as I closed in and hooked an arm around his neck,  squeezing as hard as I could. He started to claw at me as I squeezed  but his claws raked off my armor as I grinned down at him.

I  slowly circled, keeping an out for the other Walker, and as I did I  taunted the one in my grasp. "You aren't the only one who learns idiot."  I had his neck in the crook of my elbow and I used my metal limb like a  vice to slowly crush his throat. "Your flesh can take a pounding, but  lets see how much continuous pressure it takes to pop your ridiculous  head." I grinned nastily down at him as I squeezed. "By the way I found  out a little something about myself a while ago. You see, because of my  nature I don't fit in here in this universe, which is why the god wolf  didn't come back after I put him down. Which means that your pesky  outsider immortality doesn't work on me. If I kill you, you fuckers get  to stay dead."

Sharkface's  scrabbling became more frantic as he realized he was in actual danger,  and I got a sudden burst of intuition I needed to move. I threw myself  back, losing my grip on the slippery fuck as a long jagged claw slashed  open my fucking throat, just barely missing my carotid artery because  I'd thrown myself out of the way. I popped back up to try to follow the  bastard but He Who Walks Behind had already vanished again. I cursed as I  tried to circle to avoid being ambushed without losing track of the  other Walker, who was even now staggering to his feet and actually  hacking and coughing from the pressure, which considering I didn't think  they could even breathe made me smirk a bit.

Unfortunately  that was the end of my surprise advantage. They took me seriously this  time. He Who Walks Behind hit me from the back to distract me and  Sharkface rushed me when I was off balance and suddenly I was trying to  fight both at once. The hard part was the scale freaks attacks were  nearly invisible so they took most of my attention to catch even some of  them, and Sharkface was ruthlessly exploiting that. I shifted back to  twelve pouring power into my speed and throwing every triple stacked  combo I had in me at the bastards. Once again I got a strange feeling  when I got to twelve, like I was on the edge of something big, and my  instincts seemed to go into overdrive.

I  dodged and wove back and forth trying to find their patterns and get  any advantage I could but they were both so monstrously fast and strong.  Sharkface was a perfect meat shield and did his best to get in the way  of every blow while He Who Walks behind exploited my every opening to  try to slash me up. I had wounds all up my neck and along my legs as in  spot along my stomach and my left elbow where he'd found momentary gaps  created by moving armor. I was starting to bleed more and more but oddly  it just helped me get more and more in the zone.

I  felt like I was on the edge of something so important, but I just  couldn't push myself over line.  Every move, every flash of insight,  every dodge or step or punch or block brought me closer and closer to  what I knew I needed to be, to what I had been heading to all this time,  and then, in a click of roaring power and a cacophony of exultant  force, I clicked over into the thirteenth and final form of klurkor, and  I saw everything. My combusting soul stabilized, shifting into a sort  of cyclical pattern that fed into itself, rather than the open ended  constantly increasing blaze of uncontrolled strength this stable cycle  STAYED burning.

Despite  the power though my body wasn't impacted, each rotation condensing and  purifying my soul into something tight and  shining and almost solid  before I felt it begin to siphon everything into itself. My power, my  aspects my godsteel, and as my right arm melted back into normal flesh  and the veins of the stuff were siphoned into my spirit I finally  figured out what godsteel was, and I felt like an IDIOT. I'd been  refining my body into an angelic state this whole time but I'd never  really been supposed to make the conversion complete. Being an angel  wasn't what I was meant to do, godsteel was my souls halfway attempt to  assume a physical form, and it's constant growth as it expanded into my  body was it trying to merge my flesh and spirit in the only way it  could.

Half  angel was all I was supposed to be, because angels were both more and  less than mortals, the used soulfire but they didn't exactly have souls.  Gods did, but their spirits were manifest in a way an angels wasn't  because of it's soulfire flesh. I was always meant to be both, to merge  my flesh and spirit into a new and perfect gestalt that my body refining  and my godsteel network had been preparing me for this whole time. The  compacted soul sphere inside me shattered as the Walkers attacks  harmlessly tore apart flesh I was barely paying attention to, and the  sum total of the energy of my blazing spirit exploded through me,  echoing through my entire form as it wracked me like a seizure.

The  cascade of power flooded into me, merging with me on a cellular level,  infusing the soul energy that had been trying to take form and become  godsteel into the mitochondria of my cells and changing their source of  power, altering each and every cell into the perfect form that I had  been on the verge of since the beginning, burning out the mortality and  the weakness as my soul and body became one in a way unique across the  entire multiverse. The soulfire, hellfire, faith energy and all the  other forces embedded in my godsteel refined my body, creating an  amalgam of angelic flesh and metal and energy that was living and so  much more at the same time.

I  opened my eyes, finally noticing the Walkers attacks that I had been  ignoring easily and with no real consequence as I stared down at the  bastards, my eyes shining with power of a thousand supernovas as my body  became one giant reactor of the energy the klurkor state had bestowed,  but with a managable output a million times what it had ever been ever  at stage thirteen. I had no trouble seeing where they were, no trouble  piercing He Who Walk's Behind's concealment and focusing on the  misshapen thing, nor did I miss the horror on its disgusting face as it  realized what I had knows since this started.

I  smiled and flicked a finger and it's very essence burned away into  nonexistence, followed by Sharkface, and then the million or so outsider  footsoldier behind them as I turned my merciless smile on Loki,  relishing the look of terror on the old gods face. I vanished from where  I stood, not needing to cross the distance at all, just deciding to  take the action and having my will made manifest as I bore down on the  god of mischief in vindictive glee. The scarred god scrambled back, his  face twisted even further with terror as he tried to plead for his life,  but the smile on my face froze as I took a step to follow and I felt  the air...change.

I  ignored Loki looking up at the rip in the world, and noticed a small  form stroll out of the gap. I blinked a bit as I saw him, because he  felt...wrong. He looked around my age, but smaller, pitch black hair and  black eyes and skin so pale it made bone look colorful. His features  were thin and gaunt and hungry, and he wore a pair of ratty black jeans  and a black hoodie with no shirt under it. The creature in front of me  looked human, but I knew it was pretty much the opposite. It looked  around with a furrowed brow, annoyance etched onto it's gaunt face,  before it turned to look at me. "You. Are a problem. You have  consistently been an issue for me, and I'm just about done with it." I  expected another creepy voice or echoing rasp of death but he just  sounded...annoyed.

His bare feet,  the clawlike nails of which were the only outward sign besides his pitch  black eyes that he was something other than human, clicked as he landed  gracefully and started walking towards me. "I mean, congratulations I  suppose. You won. You foiled the invasion, but I'm going to kill you  anyway, because I can't have wildcards like you running amok while I try  to take this place." 

He glanced up at the tear, which was beginning to  heal. "Huh, that's closing faster than expected, but it's fine. Five  minutes then I suppose. Should be enough time. I suppose I ought to  introduce myself to you before you die. I am the first and last of the  dark, the truth unspoken for fear of retribution, I am the highest and  the lowest and everything between." He flashed his teeth, showing on  more inhuman feature in the jagged sharklike edges filling his mouth. "I  am He Who Stands Above. Well, then, intros are finished, die now." And  then he attacked.